BigDotStu (your #8023),
Googling "
Sir Arthur Marshall 'Creamy' Flying Instructor Scheme", gives us:
(From D.Tel. Obituary)
...At the same time he devised a revolutionary procedure for the rapid training of pilots and their flying instructors; during the Second World War the Marshall Flying Schools trained more than 20,000 pilots and instructors for the RAF, and its methods continue to be used by the RAF to this day...
and:
Speaking to BBC Radio Cambridgeshire's Graham Hughes, Terry Holloway, Group Support Executive for Marshall of Cambridge, explains the impact of the flying school on the Second World War.
..."Sir Arthur Marshall actually invoked a scheme to train instructors from scratch. The usual route was for senior pilots in the RAF to progress to become instructors regardless of their enthusiasm or aptitude for that task. Marshall decided to take trainees on from scratch - if they were good pilots and had the aptitude he'd teach them to become instructors.
"In 1941, his 'Ab Initio' Flying Instructor Scheme was adopted universally by the RAF and it still exists to this day, known as the 'Creamy' Flying Instructor Scheme."
Air Marshall [sic] Sir John Day commented in recent years that had the Marshall scheme been introduced at the very beginning of the war, there would have been no shortage of pilots for the Battle of Britain...
The policy of "Creaming Off" Instructors by selection from Wings graduates was in force in the USAAC when I trained there Sep'41 to Feb'42. Seems the RAF started at the same time. It is obvious (now) that the quickest way to mass-produce pilots is to use your top graduates as "seed corn", at the cost of a delay in getting them into operational service. But (then), the idea seemed to have been to have a cadre of specialised Flying Instructors
# who were permanently on that job.
Note # EDIT: When writing this, a misty memory of a poem in "Punch" came back to me. Isn't Google wonderful ? - found it, tried to copy it, wouldn't play, so see for yourselves:
The Flying Instructor's Lament - Aircrew Remembered
aircrewremembered.com/flying-instructors-lament-owen-chave.html
But of course, what we're talking about here is the actual
content of the flying instruction, delivered by whomsoever, so:
Google>Gosport System of Flying Training in RFC First World War flying training - Taking Flight - Royal Air ...www.rafmuseum.org.uk/...flight/.../first-world-war-flying-training.aspx>
...Perhaps the most important development was the adoption of Major Robert Smith-Barry's 'Gosport System' of training, which gave students the confidence to fly their aircraft to the limit. These changes helped the RFC to turn out large numbers of capable combat pilots quickly while reducing the number of accidents.
When the Royal Air Force (RAF) was formed in April 1918, it inherited over 100 training squadrons and 30 specialist schools; units that would later boast more than 7,000 aircraft. By the Armistice in November, pilots were receiving instruction in all aspects of air fighting on an eleven-month course which included an average of 50 hours' solo flying. From a single flying school in 1914, the RAF's training organization had, in four years, grown to become the largest and most effective in the world...
It is interesting that a ballpark time for taking a lad off the street and training him to Wings standard in WWII seems still to have been 12 mos (my impression - I stand to be corrected). The "Gosport System" is with us yet
AFAIK.
EDIT:...I'll return to lurking in a corner of the crew room, mug of tea in hand...
Teabar in corner of crewroom, 2d in the jar, please (real currency - post-1972 Toytown money not acceptable)
Danny.
PS:
Warmtoast,
Wonderful pics of the sprog ! Clearly you're bringing him up right - a real chip off the old block (or should I say a crumb off the old slice ?)
D.